Positivity and Negativities of Virtual Teams in Management Communication

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams in management communication. It highlights the positive aspects such as leveraging global talent and optimizing time and cost, as well as the potential challenges like poor internet connection and unresponsive employees. Strategies for overcoming these challenges are also suggested.

Running head: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
Management Communication
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Positivity of Virtual teams...............................................................................................................3
Negativities of Virtual Team...........................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Intensive marketing research has helped in understanding the importance of the virtual
team in the modern-day business setups. Findings from the focus groups and the surveys have
shown that virtual teams have manifold advantages. Thus this helps in adding a huge amount of
dynamic and variation to current rage of goods and services that are being produced in the
organization. No longer are companies staying at any static points. They are trying to move
towards dynamism and universalism. Thus it will be good for ABC Company to collaborate with
the International staffs located at Los angles, Bangalore, Shanghai via the Virtual Team system
rather than F2F or the traditional method.
Positivity of Virtual teams
Virtual teams help in adding a wide range of multicultural and dynamic ideas to the
business process. Gilson et al (2015) are of the opinion that the virtual teams help in leveraging
global talent. This system helps the organization to seek talent beyond their country of origin.
Wadsworth & Blanchard (2015) has added that the organizations are able to connect with
specialist and experts coming from an altogether different background. ABC Company must start
this communication tool as it will help them to connect with staffs living in Los Angles,
Shanghai or in Bangalore just via one click or one touch while sitting in their office rooms at
Melbourne. In order to produce any product that would have a demand in the local market of Los
Angles, ABC Company has to consult with a stakeholder who is a local or bears an extensive
knowledge about the local market demand of the people of Los Angeles.

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Virtual teams help in doing the work in a time optimizing and cost optimizing manner.
Mattarellib et al (2017) are of the opinion that since the virtual team helps in connecting with the
employees living in different time zones, the work takes place on a 24*7 hour basis. There will
be no lack of employee support in this case. If some employees are absent or unavailable due to
any reason, the members living in the different time one or the different geographical location
will be able to take over the charge and carry on with the work. ABC Company will be greatly
benefitted if they undertake this virtual team system for their new venture rather than the F2F or
the traditional system. This will help them in getting uninterrupted support from their employees.
This will help them in speeding up the pace of their ongoing project. This will be helping them to
get their work done with better expertise and also within less amount of time. ABC Company
will also be able to get cost maximization because they will be able to save on their real estate
cost or property cost. Extra capital funds would be accumulated that will be used in their R&D
department. This in turn will be beneficial for the ABC Company as they will be able to make
more savings and will carry on their work free from the fear of arranging office space,
accommodation space and others. This will make ABC company staff give their full
concentration over their ongoing project.
Negativities of Virtual Team
Virtual teams can often suffer from issues like poor internet connection and unresponsive
employees. Meier, Smith & Porter (2017.) has stated that the virtual teams may suffer due to the
poor internet connection. ABC Company will mainly operate from Melbourne. Thus due to poor
internet connection there can be issues in connecting the tools like video conferencing,
discussion forums and others. Some of the employees might take undue advantage of this and
become unresponsive. This will affect then the progress of the work. Pozin et al (2018) are of the

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opinion that there can be issues of conflicts due to their cultural differences and language
barriers. Thus the organizations must recruit language translators and interpreters who will help
the employees to convey their thoughts and ideas without any issues. There are strategies that
help in overcoming the issues of connection failure or unresponsiveness.
Conclusion
ABC Company can definitely take some strategies in order to make sure that they are
staying in proper connection with the employees who are working from a distance. It is
recommended that ABC company undertakes strategies like staying in proper connection via the
instant messaging, hangout and other such platforms will help the company to build a bond or a
trust with their employees. This will help the employees working from a distance to know that
they are a valuable part of the business discussions going on at the Melbourne office.

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References
Gilson, L.L., Maynard, M.T., Jones Young, N.C., Vartiainen, M. & Hakonen, M., 2015. Virtual
teams research: 10 years, 10 themes, and 10 opportunities. Journal of Management, 41(5),
pp.1313-1337.
Wadsworth, M.B. & Blanchard, A.L., 2015. Influence tactics in virtual teams. Computers in
Human Behavior, 44, pp.386-393 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.026
Mattarelli, E., Tagliaventi, M.R., Carli, G. & Gupta, A., 2017. The role of brokers and social
identities in the development of capabilities in global virtual teams. Journal of International
Management, 23(4), pp.382-398.
Meier, H.H., Smith, D.D. & Porter, T.H., 2017. Global Virtual Teams For Accounting
Millennials. The Journal of Research in Business Education, 58(1), p.48.
Popescu, F. and Warmenhoven, R., 2018, July. Use of technology and virtual communication via
global virtual teams at Arnhem business school. In International Conference on Applied Human
Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 239-248). Springer, Cham. Available at:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-94709-9_24
Pozin, M.A.A., Nawi, M.N.M., Lee, A. and Azman, M.N.A., 2018. Improving communication in
managing industrialised building system (IBS) projects: virtual environment. Malaysian
Construction Research Journal, 2(2), pp.1-13.

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